Enjoying Umbria’s HOT DEALS › bitstream › 10070 › ...Tokyo, 12 restaurants and bars, a...
1
14 KATHERINE TIMES, WEDNESDAY MARCH 19 2014 www.katherinetimes.com.au REPOSITIONS VACANT RCI Cruises is offering good fares on repositioning cruises at the end of the Australian season. Departing Sydney, the Radiance of the Seas repositioning cruise to New Zealand, Tahiti and Hawaii is priced from $1749 a person. The 18-night itinerary leaves Sydney on April 10. The Celebrity Solstice repositioning cruise to Hawaii and Tahiti is priced from $1899 a person, departs Sydney on April 11 and includes 10 days at sea over an 18-day itinerary. And the Rhapsody of the Seas 16- night repositioning cruise to Samoa, Fiji and Hawaii, from $1399 a person, departs Sydney on April 18 and includes nine days at sea. Phone 1800 754 500. ■ royalcaribbean.com.au and celebritycruises.com.au AYERS AND GRACES Voyages Ayers Rock Resort has put together an Uluru Weekend package that includes direct return flights from Melbourne, return airport transfers at Uluru, two nights’ accommodation with buffet breakfast and an indigenous activities program. Children 15 and under stay and breakfast free using existing bedding (flights extra). The package costs from $899 a person twin share. The flight schedule on the Easter (April 18-April 21) and Queen’s Birthday (June 6-June 9) weekends means the package is extended to three nights and is priced from $999 a person. The package will run every weekend for an initial 13- week season. ■ ayersrockresort.com.au/melbourne MAI OH MAI Creative Holidays has a deal for a four- night holiday in Chiang Mai, Thailand’s “rose of the north”. The deal includes return economy flights to Chiang Mai flying with Thai Airways and four nights at the four- star Centara Duangtawan Hotel, a 512-room modern property in the city centre. Daily buffet breakfast is also included. The deal is priced from $1005 a person, twin share, departing Sydney. It is valid for sale until March 28 and for travel from ■ creativeholidays.com JAPAN PLAN In a quiet area of downtown Tokyo, Hotel Chinzanso is a luxuriously appointed five- star hotel surrounded by beautiful 150-year- old traditional Japanese gardens. It has some of the largest rooms in Tokyo, 12 restaurants and bars, a full- service spa, health club, indoor pool and onsite parking. Hotels.com is offering 40 per cent off stays. Priced from $351 a room a night, the deal is valid for sale and travel until March 31. ■ hotels.com Enjoying Umbria’s slow pleasures HOT DEALS Wedged between Rome and Tuscany, the often overlooked region of Umbria contains many delights, as Brian Johnston discovers by luxury coach. B eyond Rome’s tangle of highways, umbrella pines unfurl and burnt- orange villas slouch on hillsides. Umbria is a fertile landscape and an ancient one. Umbria is less visited than better-known Tuscany to the north. Some, who don’t know better, call it the poor man’s Tuscany, in the same way they sniff at coach tours. As my coach heads up the highway, I am delighted to be on a grand adventure in an unfamiliar part of Italy. I want to spend my time absorbing the panorama beyond the windows, and exploring Umbria’s slow pleasures. Orvieto is the first of these, just 125 kilometres north of Rome. Our coach parks at Foro Boario, where a clanking lift hoists us through the rock onto its fortified walls. From the ramparts, vineyards and villages are gorgeous enough to provide a stab of happiness. Before we are let loose, we have an orientation tour with Marco, a local art historian and madly enthusiastic leprechaun of a man. He strolls us past old towers and Gothic palaces, sparking with information. Ahead looms a black-and-white cathedral, zebra-striped, as if painted by teenager pranksters. Inside, the cathedral is dim and simple, capturing the solemn spirituality of an age before Renaissance doubt and baroque bedazzlement. Soon our group dissolves, and I scamper off to investigate Orvieto’s alimentare. The town is at the forefront of Italy’s slow-food movement, and shops are fat with cheese, salamis and porchetta flavoured with wild fennel that is grasso e magro (fatty and lean) from the pork shoulder and belly. As our coach trundles north and passengers gaze at the scenery or catch up on emails, I dream of a month in Orvieto, or maybe even a lifetime. The following evening in Perugia, I set off with some newfound friends and find a backstreet pizzeria that could not be further from tourist-hotel restaurants. Locals chortle over rough red wine as chefs shovel pizzas into a hunchbacked oven where flames dance. Minutes later, I am tucking into a pizza scattered with oozing splinters of cheese and curling prosciutto, burnt at the edges. The main street, Corso Vannucci, is joyous in pale-pink stone. We stay two nights and, in the evenings, this is the place to join a throng of locals on their passeggiata, that well- dressed, gelato-slurping, crony-greeting promenade ritual so beloved of Italians. Later, jazz bars hum with the chatter of university students and restaurant laughter spills into shadowy streets that set cheeks tingling with a promise of winter. Morning views unroll across a cypress- dotted valley towards Assisi on the far hillside. It is by far the most touristy destination in Umbria, with more than 5 million visitors a year. Pilgrims come from all around the world to visit the home town and final resting place of St Francis, the wealthy merchant’s son who gave up the good life in 1204 to devote himself to preaching and poverty, and became a favourite Catholic saint. Streets are a bustle of brown-robed friars, Polish grandmothers and hallelujah hippies. Doleful supplicants hang off the metal grille around St Francis’s plain tomb, whispering prayers. The tomb of fellow poverty-preacher St Clare is across town, a little overlooked. Shops line the streets between the two, a plastic eruption of saintly statues and snowdomes made in China. Away from the holiness, Assisi is still impressive. It has Roman remains, a hilly cascade of cobblestone streets topped by a whopping papal fortress, and views to make you think you have gone to heaven. But being a mere tourist among psalm-singing teenagers and Philippine nuns is an awkward business. Fortunately, Assisi provides temptations of the flesh for those incredulous by nature. Every street corner seems to have a pastry shop gluttonous with fig-filled biscotti pizzicato and mother-in-law’s tongues that ooze a sharp marmalade of candied lemon peel. Few of my tour group seem moved to religious devotion, but this is no cookie- cutter itinerary. Some shop, some drink coffee, some Instagram lovely Umbrian scenes. The earnest press Belinda for history. Others ogle art. Then we climb back on board and swap stories about finding a fresco, a pear tart, a ceramic dish. It would be a dull soul who did not enjoy a coach tour of Italy. ■ The writer was a guest of Insight Vacations. >> travel TYING THE KNOT? CELEBRATING A BIRTHDAY? Have your photos published in the Katherine Times - let us know on 8972 1111 so we can send one of our photographers or email your photos to [email protected] HAVING A BUSINESS FUNCTION? AW1240175
Transcript of Enjoying Umbria’s HOT DEALS › bitstream › 10070 › ...Tokyo, 12 restaurants and bars, a...
14 KATHERINE TIMES, WEDNESDAY MARCH 19 2014 www.katherinetimes.com.au
REPOSITIONS VACANTRCI Cruises is offering good fares onrepositioning cruises at the end ofthe Australian season. DepartingSydney, the Radiance of the Seasrepositioning cruise to NewZealand, Tahiti and Hawaii is pricedfrom $1749 a person. The 18-nightitinerary leaves Sydney on April 10.The Celebrity Solstice repositioningcruise to Hawaii and Tahiti is pricedfrom $1899 a person, departsSydney on April 11 and includes 10days at sea over an 18-day itinerary.And the Rhapsody of the Seas 16-night repositioning cruise to Samoa,Fiji and Hawaii, from $1399 aperson, departs Sydney on April 18and includes nine days at sea.Phone 1800 754 500.■ royalcaribbean.com.au andcelebritycruises.com.au
AYERS AND GRACESVoyages Ayers Rock Resort has puttogether an Uluru Weekendpackage thatincludesdirect returnflights fromMelbourne,returnairporttransfers atUluru, two nights’ accommodationwith buffet breakfast and anindigenous activities program.Children 15 and under stay andbreakfast free using existingbedding (flights extra). The packagecosts from $899 a person twinshare. The flight schedule on theEaster (April 18-April 21) andQueen’s Birthday (June 6-June 9)weekends means the package isextended to three nights and ispriced from $999 a person. Thepackage will run every weekend foran initial 13-week season.■ ayersrockresort.com.au/melbourne
MAI OH MAICreative Holidays has a deal for afour-night holiday in Chiang Mai,Thailand’s “rose of the north”. Thedeal includes return economyflights to Chiang Mai flying with ThaiAirways and four nights at the four-star Centara Duangtawan Hotel, a512- room modern property in thecity centre. Daily buffet breakfast isalso included. The deal is pricedfrom $1005 a person, twin share,departing Sydney. It is valid for saleuntil March 28 and for travel from■ creativeholidays.com
JAPAN PLANIn a quiet area of downtown Tokyo,Hotel Chinzanso is a luxuriouslyappointed five-star hotelsurrounded by beautiful 150-year-old traditional Japanese gardens. Ithas some of the largest rooms inTokyo, 12 restaurants and bars, afull- service spa, health club, indoorpool and onsite parking. Hotels.comis offering 40 per cent off stays.Priced from $351 a room a night, thedeal is valid for sale and travel untilMarch 31.■ hotels.com
Enjoying Umbria’s slow pleasures
HOT DEALS
Wedged between Rome and Tuscany,the often overlooked region ofUmbria contains many delights, asBrian Johnston discovers by luxurycoach.
Beyond Rome’s tangle of highways,umbrella pines unfurl and burnt-orange villas slouch on hillsides.Umbria is a fertile landscape and an
ancient one. Umbria is less visited than better-known
Tuscany to the north. Some, who don’t knowbetter, call it the poor man’s Tuscany, in thesame way they sniff at coach tours.
As my coach heads up the highway, I amdelighted to be on a grand adventure in anunfamiliar part of Italy. I want to spend mytime absorbing the panorama beyond thewindows, and exploring Umbria’s slowpleasures.
Orvieto is the first of these, just 125kilometres north of Rome. Our coach parks atForo Boario, where a clanking lift hoists usthrough the rock onto its fortified walls. Fromthe ramparts, vineyards and villages aregorgeous enough to provide a stab ofhappiness.
Before we are let loose, we have anorientation tour with Marco, a local arthistorian and madly enthusiastic leprechaunof a man. He strolls us past old towers andGothic palaces, sparking with information.Ahead looms a black-and-white cathedral,zebra-striped, as if painted by teenagerpranksters.
Inside, the cathedral is dim and simple,capturing the solemn spirituality of an agebefore Renaissance doubt and baroquebedazzlement.
Soon our group dissolves, and I scamperoff to investigate Orvieto’s alimentare. Thetown is at the forefront of Italy’s slow-foodmovement, and shops are fat with cheese,salamis and porchetta flavoured with wildfennel that is grasso e magro (fatty and lean)from the pork shoulder and belly.
As our coach trundles north andpassengers gaze at the scenery or catch up onemails, I dream of a month in Orvieto, ormaybe even a lifetime.
The following evening in Perugia, I set offwith some newfound friends and find abackstreet pizzeria that could not be furtherfrom tourist-hotel restaurants.
Locals chortle over rough red wine as chefsshovel pizzas into a hunchbacked ovenwhere flames dance. Minutes later, I amtucking into a pizza scattered with oozingsplinters of cheese and curling prosciutto,burnt at the edges.
The main street, Corso Vannucci, is joyousin pale-pink stone. We stay two nights and, inthe evenings, this is the place to join a throngof locals on their passeggiata, that well-dressed, gelato-slurping, crony-greeting
promenade ritual so beloved of Italians.Later, jazz bars hum with the chatter ofuniversity students and restaurant laughterspills into shadowy streets that set cheekstingling with a promise of winter.
Morning views unroll across a cypress-dotted valley towards Assisi on the farhillside. It is by far the most touristydestination in Umbria, with more than 5million visitors a year. Pilgrims come from allaround the world to visit the home town andfinal resting place of St Francis, the wealthymerchant’s son who gave up the good life in1204 to devote himself to preaching andpoverty, and became a favourite Catholicsaint.
Streets are a bustle of brown-robed friars,Polish grandmothers and hallelujah hippies.Doleful supplicants hang off the metal grillearound St Francis’s plain tomb, whisperingprayers. The tomb of fellow poverty-preacherSt Clare is across town, a little overlooked.Shops line the streets between the two, aplastic eruption of saintly statues andsnowdomes made in China.
Away from the holiness, Assisi is stillimpressive. It has Roman remains, a hillycascade of cobblestone streets topped by awhopping papal fortress, and views to makeyou think you have gone to heaven. But beinga mere tourist among psalm-singingteenagers and Philippine nuns is an awkwardbusiness. Fortunately, Assisi providestemptations of the flesh for thoseincredulous by nature.
Every street corner seems to have a pastryshop gluttonous with fig-filled biscottipizzicato and mother-in-law’s tongues thatooze a sharp marmalade of candied lemonpeel.
Few of my tour group seem moved toreligious devotion, but this is no cookie-cutter itinerary. Some shop, some drinkcoffee, some Instagram lovely Umbrianscenes. The earnest press Belinda for history.Others ogle art. Then we climb back on boardand swap stories about finding a fresco, apear tart, a ceramic dish. It would be a dullsoul who did not enjoy a coach tour of Italy. ■ The writer was a guest of Insight Vacations.
>> travel
TYING THE KNOT?CELEBRATING A BIRTHDAY?
Have your photos published in the Katherine Times - let usknow on 8972 1111 so we can send one of our photographers or email your photos [email protected]
HAVINGA
BUSINESS FUNCTION?
AW12
4017
5
